Valentine's Roses
by crazytomboy78
Summary: Late V-day one-shot. Someone has bought a rose for Pepper as part of a school fundraiser, and Pepper's stressing on finding out who its from.


Pepper was sitting in homeroom, talking to her friend Carrie when the teacher plopped something on her desk. When Pepper turned around, she saw a rose with a little note stuck to it sitting there. Pepper glanced back to Carrie in confusion before picking it up and reading the note.

To my special someone-here's hoping you have a great valentine's day finding out who sent this love letter (;

Pepper must've read it a thousand times over until the bell rang and she left to get to first period.

"Who got you the rose?" Rhodey asked as he and Tony walked with Pepper.

"I don't know, it's signed anonymous." Pepper explained. Tony secretly smirked.

"Ooh, Pepper's got a secret admirer!" Tony teased.

"I don't! Someone just...wanted to be nice..." Pepper said, not even believing herself.

"Suure."

Pepper glared at Tony angrily. Tony chuckled.

"Well, I-I don't care who it's from anyways." Pepper lied. Tony raised an eyebrow as if to say 'oh really?'

"Are you sure about that?" Tony asked. Pepper shrugged to try and make it seem like she really didn't care, even though she really did.

"No, I really don't. Now if you excuse me, I have a class to get to." Pepper said, brushing the whole thing off her shoulders and walking past her friends.

"Dude, why are you torturing her like that? You know she really likes you. She WANTS it to be from you." Rhodey said once Pepper was gone.

"I don't know what you mean," Tony lied. Rhodey crossed his arms angrily.

"Alright, alright, so maybe I sent the rose. It wasn't to tease her, though, I swear. I really did want to give her a rose for Valentine's Day, but I didn't know how i was supposed to do that, so I kinda went vague and mysterious, yet intriguing. I was nervous, okay?" Tony explained.

"Alright, dude, do you like her or what? Cuz I know three simple words that can end this whole mess." Rhodey asked. Tony sighed.

"I-I don't know. Whenever she gets a smidgen too close to me, my heart starts racing, my palms get sweaty ad I feel the need to breathe quicker. Then all this romantic Valentines junk rolls around and suddenly I want to show her I care. But I-I'm just really nervous is all..." Tony explained.

"Well I got good news for you then, dude, cuz you definitely like her. A lot." Rhodey explained. Tony sighed.

"I guess maybe that makes sense...but what do I do?" Tony asked cluelessly.

"Uhm, you tell her?" Rhodey suggested as if it were obvious.

"Aw, do I have to? It seems so hard." Tony whined. Rhodey glared at him.

"Alright fine, I'll tell her."

~...~

Rhodey joined Pepper in class, emanating a relaxed feeling.

"What's got you so chill?" Pepper asked. Rhodey smiled.

"Oh, nothing, let's just say someone's day is going to get a lot better." Rhodey explained.

"So anyways, did you find your secret admirer yet?" Rhodey asked.

"Ugh, no, so far no one knows who sent it to me. I really really want to know." Pepper explained, irritation deep in her tone. Rhodey chuckled.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll come around sometime..." Rhodey encouraged. Pepper shrugged.

"I hope he does..." she said miserably. "I just wish I knew if it were Tony or not. What was with that whole thing this morning? He was acting all clever."

"Oh, that's just Tony being Tony. You know he doesn't mean to be a jerk."

"Yeah, but whenever he teases me like that I never know if it's because he likes me or I'm just teaseable."

"Pepper, trust me, it's not you. Tony has relied on his head to make all his decisions for him and never his heart. He stopped trusting his heart's choices when his mom died. Right now...well, Tony's basically at civil war between what his brain says and what his heart says. They're really clashing, and he doesn't know which side to choose. He likes you, a lot, he really does. He's just having trouble listening to his heart when it says that. It's not really his fault either. You can't blame the boy for being clueless." Rhodey explained, putting it as simply as he could.

"So just hang in there, he's gonna come 'round real soon, I can tell." Rhodey finished, patting Pepper's back as he waited for her smile to reappear. It did, though very small and not glowing with happiness, either. Pepper nodded and turned back to the lesson.

"I've been 'hanging in there' long enough already..." She muttered. Rhodey sighed. He knew his friend was just truly oblivious, but if he didn't come to a realization soon, it'd be too late. She knew she could wait forever, but the thing was, she was getting tired of being in that constant state of not knowing.

~…~

After the school day had drawn to a close, Tony approached Pepper at her locker quietly.

"Hey," He greeted.

"Oh, hey," Pepper responded.

"So, uh, did you ever find out who gave you the rose?" Tony asked. Pepper sighed in irritation.

"Ugh, no. I dug around and looked at like, every guy's handwriting that goes to this school, but no matches." She explained.

"Oh…well, I might know who sent it," Tony said.

"You do? Why didn't you say anything sooner?"

"I-I guess I was just a bit nervous…" Tony admitted.

"Nervous? What do you mean?" Pepper asked, confused.

"I sent the rose."

"Excuse me?"

"I sent it because I thought it would be a nice gesture for Valentine's Day. But I got nervous and signed it anonymously. Sorry if I caused you stress today," Tony explained.

"Aw, it's okay Tony. It was very nice of you," She said, hitting his arm lightly.

"No problem," Tony chuckled. "Now c'mon, I know a nice, quiet spot where we can go do some homework. It involves a room where I hold a few suits…" Tony said. Pepper chuckled and together they walked towards the armory.

**Ah, that takes care of that. Some ideas I had. I know, a little late for Vday, but it was worth it cuz it was kinda cute. Review?**


End file.
